WAMC: Bryn Mawr & Goucher

[stupidanalyst]

Hi everyone,


I was hoping for some insight on whether I’d be a competitive applicant to Goucher’s/Bryn Mawr’s post-bacc program. I’ve browsed a lot of the other threads on the topic, but I think my background is still different.

Education:
1. Lower Ivy Economics/3.7 GPA (one pass/fail course per semester). No science courses.
2. 2350 SAT (Though I took this like ~9 years ago)

Post-Grad:
1. Healthcare and Tech Investment Banking @ bulge-bracket bank (~4 years)

Volunteer:
1. Been volunteering @ a food bank once a month for the last 4 years. Let’s say ~3 hours per month for 48 months = ~150 hours.
2. Been volunteering @ a small hospice 2 years ago where a buddy works. ~2 hours per month for 24 months = ~50 hours. Most of my time is spent chatting with patients.

Appreciate the help and apologies for the curtness in the outline above. I realize I didn’t talk about my story/motivations but I’m just looking for an idea of my chances from an empirical sense. Happy to elaborate on anything if there’s a need of course - I do believe there are a lot of other things going on that isn't exactly captured by the above.

I’m planning on working for another year-ish. No plans for any additional volunteering. Don’t think I’m in a position to do any shadowing while I’m working either – the volunteering that I already do/did worked out because it was flexible to my schedule.

Also if it helps: I’m an Indian male, grew up upper-middle class (but undergrad was self-financed), no real struggles/hardships to the point that I’d like to talk or write about in an application.

Thanks everyone.

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[Blueprint Med School]

I think your chances at those two programs are good-high. Those programs love high achieving students who weren't premed in undergrad, which it looks like you are. While it's hard to say for sure, I definitely think it would be worth applying.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[stupidanalyst]

I think your chances at those two programs are good-high. Those programs love high achieving students who weren't premed in undergrad, which it looks like you are. While it's hard to say for sure, I definitely think it would be worth applying.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

Thanks for the reply. Would you happen to have more specific info on GPA and activities? Namely:
1. Would me having a bunch of courses pass/fail have a huge impact?
2. I don't have much hours of activities, but they're spread over a long period of time. Does that make up for not having raw volume?
3. Anything else I could be doing at the moment?

 

[vext840]

You might want to ask in the postbac forum if you haven't already (though I imagine that you've looked there for information since you mention reading widely here before posting). Somebody else recently asked about pass/fail affecting their chances, and it seemed like most people thought it wouldn't, given a good remaining GPA, which you have. I'll say that my clinical volunteering was highlighted as a successful part of my education in one of my postbac acceptances this year, but I only did about 10 hours a week pre-covid, albeit between four different institutions on a regular basis. I understand the difficulty of finding opportunities that make sense with a work schedule, but I found that squeezing in time in two or three hour increments at each place was effective for me, though of course ymmv. If anything, pandemic precautions might encourage more scheduling flexibility as available opportunities are largely remote now. All this said, your stats look promising to open the door, and your motivation and narrative are what will make the difference. I hope that this is somewhat helpful/encouraging, and best of luck!

 

[doctorold]

You might want to ask in the postbac forum if you haven't already

Where is that Postbac forum? I've been looking for it.

 

[vext840]

Sorry, I should have linked. You can get to the forum through here, and if you are on the general forum list, it's the first item under the "Interdisciplinary" heading.